By Ramon Antonio Vargas
The Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — When Kelvin Boykins pedaled away after fatally stabbing another man during a fight over a six-pack of beer in the 7th Ward on Sunday, he was being shadowed, authorities said.
Another person tailed Boykins, called 911 and didn’t get off the phone until police arrested the accused killer nearly two miles from the scene of the crime, according to Orleans Parish Criminal District Court records released Monday.
Boykins, 49, faces one count of second-degree murder in the slaying of 53-year-old Ronald Pitts. He made an initial court appearance Monday morning at which his bail was set at $250,000.
Court documents say at least two people claim they watched Boykins plunge a knife into Pitts’ chest and leave him to die on the ground in the 1700 block of North Dorgenois Street about 6 p.m. Sunday.
Police said Pitts had just left a nearby store with a six-pack of beer as a woman who worked there chased him. The court documents do not make clear why the employee was chasing Pitts, but a store owner told WWL-TV that Pitts had taken the beer without paying.
Boykins was passing by and tried to help the employee catch Pitts, kicking off a fight that ended with Boykins pulling out a knife and stabbing Pitts in the chest, police said. A store surveillance video viewed by WWL-TV shows Boykins chasing Pitts off-screen, returning with some beer cans, and shoveling them into a backpack.
Boykins then rode off on a bicycle, police said, citing accounts from two unidentified witnesses.
One of those witnesses called police and followed Boykins, whose address is relatively close to the store, investigators wrote in an arrest warrant. The warrant doesn’t specify whether that witness was driving.
But the witness was in a position to photograph Boykins as police arrested him near Franklin and St. Roch avenues, investigators said.
That witness provided the photograph of Boykins’ capture to Homicide Detective Brett Mathes, who was investigating Pitts’ killing. The witness told Mathes that it was Boykins who fatally stabbed Pitts, police said.
A second witness who spoke with police also said that an argument led to the deadly stabbing. That witness saw Boykins sitting in the homicide detectives’ office at police headquarters and identified him as the man who had killed Pitts.
Mathes and Homicide Sgt. Peter Hansche soon obtained a warrant to arrest Boykins.
He faces mandatory life imprisonment if eventually convicted of murder.
At the time of his arrest, Boykins was wanted on a warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court in December for his arraignment on counts of illegal possession of drugs, resisting an officer and possession of drug paraphernalia, records show.
WWL-TV’s Jade Cunningham contributed to this report.